Hurricane Wilma: Electricity restored to 45 percent areas in Florida

Hurricane Wilma: Electricity restored to 45 percent areas in Florida
POMPANO BEACH, Florida - Power has been restored to nearly half the South Florida homes and businesses that had lost power as Hurricane Wilma surged towards the Keys island chain. The availability of electricity has prompted plans to welcome tourists to the islands in a bid to restore normalcy in the area that was hit hard by Wilma.

The Florida Power & Light is focusing on restoring electricity to stations and supermarkets where people throng to get daily essentials. Power has been restored at the fuel depot at Port Everglades, which supplies most stations across South Florida.

The company said that it had been able to restore electricity to around 45 percent of the 6 million people who had lost it in the immediate aftermath of Wilma. But the grim news was that restoration of power to the remaining 3.5 million people could take up as much as four weeks, according to the utility.

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Meanwhile, President George Bush had a first look at Wilma's damage yesterday and expressed satisfaction with the measures taken by his brother Florida Governor Jeb Bush. “People are getting fed,” the president said. “Soon more and more houses will have their electricity. Their life will get back to normal.”

The estimate for the rebuilding effort is now $8 billion to $12 billion, up from previous estimate of $2 billion to $10 billion, according to Risk Management Solutions, a risk-modeling firm. This will make Wilma the third costliest hurricane cost wise after last month's Katrina and Andrew.

Over in Mexico, which suffered huge damages, President Vicente Fox has asked hotel owners not to lay off Cancun residents whose only means of livelihood was the tourism industry.